Huge inflatable walk-through sculpture, The Luminarium, comes to The Stray

Hollie Bone

A giant interactive art installation, known as The Luminarium, will land on West Park Stray in Harrogate this week.

Half the size of a football pitch, the inflatable walk-through sculpture has visited landmarks across the globe including the the Guggenheim in Spain to the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Designed by Alan Parkinson of Architects of Air, The Luminarium, offers a dazzling maze of winding paths and soaring domes where Islamic architecture, Archimedean solids and Gothic cathedrals meld into 'an inspiring monument to the beauty of light and colour'.

Architects of Air founder, designer and artistic director, Alan Parkinson, said: “What motivates me to design is the fact that I continue to be struck by the beauty of light and colour found in the luminaria. These structures nurture an awareness of a pure phenomenon that gently cuts through everyday conditioned perceptions and awakens a sense of wonder in people.”

Since 1992 Architects of Air has built 21 luminaria, made over 600 exhibitions, and toured in 43 countries where over three million visitors have immersed themselves in the luminous world of Architects of Air.

Once inside visitors are free to follow a map of the labyrinth tunnels and cavernous domes, or simply find a cocooning pod, sit and lie back and enjoy the ambience.

The experience has been described as ‘somewhere between a womb and a cathedral’ and organisers say no two visits to a structure are alike as the atmosphere inside alters according to changing weather and changing light outside.

The Luminarium is on the Stray from Thursday 12 July to Sunday 15 July.

Tickets cost £5 for adults, £4 for children 3-18, Children 2 and under go free but all children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.